Singapore’s 50 most enterprising companies for 2007 announced

Singapore's 50 Most Enterprising Companies For 2007 Announced

November 23, 2007

SINGAPORE, November 23, 2007 ? Kim Ann Engineering Pte. Ltd, a home-grown company which has made it to the Enterprise 50 (E50) list for the past 5 consecutive years, took the top spot at tonight's 2007 Enterprise 50 and e50.startup Gala Dinner and Award Presentation.

The dinner was officiated by Minister Lim Swee Say, Prime Minister's Office, who gave away the awards to the winning companies.

The Enterprise 50 award, now in its thirteenth year, was created by Accenture and The Business Times in 1995 to identify, support, recognise and reward enterprising privately-owned, local companies across all sectors. In addition to the 50 companies, five start-up companies were also chosen to receive the e50.startup award. The e50.startup award was created in 2002 to recognise local companies who do not yet have the track record needed to qualify for the main Enterprise 50 list but are innovative and possess notable enterprising spirit.

In second and third place respectively on this year's Enterprise 50 list are LIPICO Technologies Pte Ltd and Romar Positioning Equipment Pte Ltd. The top three e50.startup winners are K&C Protective Technologies Pte Ltd, Dextrans Worldwide Group Pte Ltd and Gold Matrix Resources Pte Ltd.

Mr Seah Chin Siong, Country Managing Director of Accenture and co-chairman of the Enterprise 50 Steering Committee, said "The E50 list represents the cream of Singapore's entrepreneurship. With the stringent criteria set, only a handful of top local privately-held companies make the mark each year and serve as an inspiration for others to follow."

"This year's winners had the leadership, courage and vision to respond vigorously to an increasingly competitive business environment. They have embraced the spirit of entrepreneurship and demonstrated the mark of excellence," he added

"The Business Times congratulates all the 50 companies on this year's list, especially the 17 first-time winners. The E50 list has been regarded by many local enterprises as a stepping stone towards a public listing. I am sure many of this year's winners will follow in that direction. Since its inception, the E50 programme has honoured more than 300 local companies, of which 103 or about a third, have gone on to be listed on the local bourse,'' commented Alvin Tay, the editor of The Business Times.

At this year's awards, 17 companies are newcomers to the E50 list. Among them are iFAST Corporation Pte Ltd, Romar Positioning Equipment Pte Ltd and Gain City Best-Electric Pte Ltd.

To qualify for the E50 award, companies must be locally incorporated, have at least 30% local equity, three years audited financial records and must not be listed on any stock exchange. The participants are evaluated on quantitative and qualitative criteria, which take into consideration performance indicators such as operating profit before tax, turnover and profit growth. Qualitative aspects include management philosophy, innovation and market presence.

The judging panel comprised senior management representatives from Accenture, The Business Times, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), International Enterprise (IE) Singapore and Spring Singapore. OCBC bank is a sponsor.

Said Mr Chong Lit Cheong, Chief Executive Officer, IE Singapore: "This year's E50 and e50.startup winners come from diverse industries and they represent the most entrepreneurial and promising local enterprises in their respective fields. It's heartening to know that a majority of them have established their presence in overseas markets and are actively seeking new opportunities there. IE Singapore will continue to work with these enterprises to develop the capabilities needed to expand overseas. We're confident that they will grow to be globally competitive enterprises."

RAdm (NS) Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer, IDA said: "Infocomm technology has the potential to generate economic and business benefits. Our companies are becoming more sophisticated in their use of infocomm technology as they embrace it to create new business models and optimise their business strategies and operations. The vision, commitment and true entrepreneurial spirit of our E50 winners have certainly been key to their success."

From the entries received, the companies were short listed and then ranked according to specific criteria. A wide range of business activity is represented ? manufacturing (24%), wholesale/distribution (24%), engineering services (20%), logistics (8%), IT & high-tech (6%), food & beverage (4%), construction/real estate (4%), retail (4%) and others (6%).

Eighty percent of the winners have been in business for more than 10 years whilst 42% of the winners have more than 100 staff.

Mr Loh Khum Yean, SPRING Singapore's Chief Executive, said "Among the winning companies are local SMEs who have developed valuable intellectual property and scalable business models with global market potential. They have done so by being early adopters of technology and investing in R&D. SPRING will help to enable more of such SME success stories by working with research institutes, polytechnics and private research facilities for our enterprises to tap on, to boost their innovative capabilities and accelerate their growth."